Powerful. Provocative. Disturbing. Those are the words I’d use to describe Marcie R. Rendon’s standalone, Where They Last Saw Her. The author of the Cash Blackbear series returns to a familiar theme, #mmiw. Missing or Murdered Indian Women. U.S. and Canadian statistics show over 4,000 women in each country are missing or murdered. Rendon’s novel puts a personal face on those losses.
Quill has lived on the Red Pine reservation in Minnesota her entire life. But, she was young when she saw Jimmy Sky jump off a railway bridge and she ran for help. Quill has been running ever since. Despite her marriage to Crow, a good man, and their two children, she can’t quell her feelings of anxiety unless she’s running. She’s training for the Boston Marathon when she hears a scream in the woods one morning. Now, she can’t even escape through her running. Crow doesn’t want her to run alone, and she’s afraid she heard another woman kidnapped or murdered. But, the tribal police don’t seem up to the task of finding a missing woman.
Quill enlists the help of two friends, Punk and Gaylin. The women uncover a story of a Native woman who has disappeared, but they’re also on the scene when two white men try to drag a drugged woman from the local casino. She’s saved, but her friend, Lisa, is missing. Quill won’t stop running or investigating, until she finds answers. And, she suspects she’s followed. It’s not safe for any Native women with the “man camps” set up for the men working the nearby pipelines. They have money and time to burn, and Native women around in large numbers.
Although Quill and Gaylin rescue one woman, a friend goes missing. And Quill’s husband is furious that she won’t let go and allow the police to investigate. Without the support at home, Quill is shocked to learn that the elders, the women of the reservation, are supporting her, as a runner and as one who won’t let go in searching for the missing women.
Where They Last Saw Her is a disturbing book, and it should be. Although several women are rescued, there are too many kidnappings and disappearances that continue. Once again, it’s women who fight back when no one will fight for them. With a long history of exploitation, indigenous women have reason to be angry and afraid.
Marcie Rendon’s website is www.marcierendon.com.
Where They Last Saw Her by Marcie R. Rendon. Bantam, 2024. ISBN 9780593496527 (hardcover), 315p.
FTC Full Disclosure – I bought a copy of the book.
I started watching one of the book interviews and it was interesting, that I just enjoyed it. I want to read her books. I remember meeting Native American Indian in one of my YMCA classes, and we were instant friends but we got divided up into groups and I never saw her again.
My aunt Octavia used to live the country, she divorced her husband, He been taking the children to the bars with him while she taught school. He was heavy drinker and so my other aunts helped her with money so she could stay home and take care of her threechildren. Later on she married a Native American Indian and everyone in the family loved him so much. He farmed the land and had a deep respect for nature and he built a lot bedroom for the son. It was a two bedroom house before. I remember standing on a hill with my Aunt Martha and seeing my Uncle Roland and my brother talking in the corn field down below. He picked up a handful of soil and crumbled it through his fingers. We need that he was talking about how good Tipton County soil was. Both my aunt and I had tears in our eyes.
I know about the kidnappings and have read about them and wonder how can they be prevented. I think it awful how children were removed from their homes and sent to be hired hands in some states and in other times, sent away to schools were they with the purpose of teaching them to forget their heritage and be like white people.
The entire history of the Native Americans after the white man arrived in the U.S. and Canada is tragic, Carol. You’re right. We should all appreciate the land as your uncle did.